Faith and Fear on Facebook

In April or May, rainouts are shrug-your-shoulders stuff, down payments on an unexpected doubleheader or on-again off-day at a point so much later in the season that the date seems like science fiction. We're gonna play Pittsburgh in … August? Wow, August. Yawn … wonder how we'll be doing then?

A September rainout, though, is a very different beast. Will the offday wreck our momentum? Doesn't this let the other guy line up his pitching rotation better? When on earth are we going to play? How many doubleheaders can we possibly have? And who the heck's gonna start? Will the lost game get played at the end of the season if needed? Will that “if needed” hurt us for the playoffs? Are we even gonna make the playoffs after all this? And so on — you know you're coming down the pennant-race stretch when not watching baseball is every bit as nerve-wracking as watching it.

And that's not even mentioning that Emily and I are going to a wedding scheduled to begin around the fith inning of today's Game 1 and go into the night. So I'll be That Guy, the one with the radio who keeps darting outside to huddle with the smokers for a listen, a listen that becomes extended because it's a really pivotal inning or just because his nerves are shot and he's convinced the team will lose if he abandons his post. (The bride is both salt of the earth and a longtime Met fan, so I'm crossing my fingers that she'll be forgiving.)

If you've also got nervous time on your hands (WE HAVEN'T PLAYED SINCE 11 PM WEDNESDAY — WHY DO WE HAVE TO BE THE 4 O'CLOCK GAME???!!!), why not check us out on Facebook? We've recently set up a page for Faith and Fear, and we'd be honored if you'd visit and maybe even become a fan. Or come drop by my personal page, or Greg's.

To tell the truth, we're not 100% sure where we're going with our Facebook presence, but we're trying it out, just as we always look for new ways to get Faith and Fear on aggregators, RSS services, and anything else that might reach people who love the Mets and like to read. If you've got any ideas about how we ought to do that, leave us a comment or drop us a line. And thanks as always for reading — we can't know if September will be glorious or gory, but either way we're looking forward to chronicling it not just as writers but as part of a larger community with all of you.

GET THE SHIRT!

The Faith and Fear in Flushing "numbers" shirt has been seen from Verona, N.J., to Venice. You can get yours right here -- price about as cheap as we can make it.

GET THE BOOK!

Faith and Fear in Flushing: An Intense Personal History by Greg Prince (foreword by Jason Fry), is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other online booksellers.

THE HAPPIEST RECAP

Volume I of The Happiest Recap: 50+ Years of the New York Mets As Told in 500+ Amazin' Wins by Greg Prince is available in print and for Kindle on Amazon. Order a personally inscribed copy from the Team Recap Store on eBay.